The ruin's tale
by Knight of Yaru
Summary: (AU) After Chrom and his archaeological team explored a faraway ruin, they got involved in affairs about a mysterious girl, an ancient civilization, an artifact granting the power to rule over the world and a princess trying to said artifact safe. (Rated T just for being on the save side)
1. Prologue

_**Prologue:**_

"Boss! We've got it! We found the chest!" a man – a tomb raider – yelled. Another man, lean and in dark clothing, came closer. It seemed that he was the bandits' boss; he certainly did not seem like he was going to help the others. As he eyed said chest mischievously, a creepy appeared on his face.

"Good…Now, get it out of here!" he commanded the workers. "Hurry up! Nobody shall see us!"

…

They fled as soon as they loaded most of the ruin's treasures and the chest on their helicopter.

As they were nearly out of sight, the head of the group started laughing maliciously. "Idiots! Unsuspecting fools! Now, the key to authority –to world domination – is mine!"

* * *

**Well... As I had no idea for my other story's next chapter, I decided to translate this story into English and yeah... Here it is!**

**At least the prologue. I know it is short, but hey, it's ONLY the prologue. The first chapter is way longer. So, look forward to it. Or don't. It's up to you.**


	2. Ancient ruins

**Now, here's chapter 1! It turned out shorter than I had imagined. And I had to change a few things during the translation from German to English.**

**And I forgot something in the prologue:**

**Disclaimer: I neither own Fire Emblem nor any of its characters appearing in the story. This disclaimer holds true for the whole story.**

* * *

_**Ancient Ruins**_

"Damn these tomb raiders!" a young, blue-haired man cursed. It seemed that he was the leader of the small group standing in front of a devastated little temple. Beside their leader, the group contained a blonde girl carrying a huge first-aid bag on her back, and a tall, brown-haired man, who seemed to carry most of the group's equipment in his backpack.

"Don't worry, Chrom! You know these morons. They're stealing everything they can sell easily and leave the valuable artifacts behind. You'll see!" the medic said cheerfully, while giving him a radiant smile.

"I have to agree with your sister, sir," the brown-haired added, "We should at least try to find something."

Chrom smiled. "Thanks, Lissa, Frederick."

The group then went on, rappelling down through a huge hole in the ground where the catacombs were.

Upon reaching them, they were greeted from the smell of decay. Lead by their flashlights, the group proceeded.

…

When they reached the treasure chamber, Lissa proclaimed, "You see? There's no gold or gemstones anymore, but the writings and paintings are still in perfect condition!" Chrom didn't seem too happy.

"There's that alcove in the ground. Whatever once was there, it was really big – and _**they**_ took it. What if it was even more important?" The others frowned. He was right.

"You're right, sir, but being angry about that won't bring back that object. We should be happy that we at least have found something," Frederick stated and the siblings nodded. So they started collecting everything they could take with them and made photographs of all the other artifacts.

After some time, a scream suddenly echoed through the room. "Chrom, help!" Said person and the brown-haired instantly turned towards the scream's source. It was certainly Lissa's voice. She was standing in the alcove just a few seconds ago, but as they looked now, she was gone.

When both men came closer they noticed that the ground in said alcove yielded as Lissa had touched a switch. "Well done, Lissa! I'd bet we're the first to find _**this**_!" Chrom jubilated as Frederick fixed a rope for climbing up the hole again. Then the two of them jumped through the trap door – and landed in the muddy remains of the buried ones. Trying to ignore the disgusting stench, the group started exploring this new section of the ruins.

…

After the three of them went on for quite a while, they reached a tunnel completely surrounded by the roots of trees in the forest the ruin is located in. Then, they reached a dead end. As there was only this one way, it was impossible that they had overlooked something. There had been tombs nearly everywhere, so the space needed for a secret door didn't exist. And in this tunnel, it was nearly impossible to construct something the like.

"CHROM!" The medic managed to get the men's attention easily. "O-o-over t-there…" she stuttered, frightened to death, "T-there's something b-behind the roots!"

"Frederick, look after Lissa for a second. I'll take a look," the blue-haired said as he drew his sword. "Watch out!" he yelled and, with a swift movement, the roots met the ground. Behind them, there was a hidden room with something inside that stunned the three of them. Completely alone in the room stood a huge chest made of pure gold, ornamented with silver and platinum vines and various gemstones, which looked just like different kinds of flowers. Atop of it there was a stone plate with runes engraved, that none of them could read. Strangely, the chest was just as big as the alcove – the trap door – they had jumped through earlier. Was it a chest like this one the raiders had stolen?

"Frederick, get us some reinforcement," Chrom commanded as he took the stone plate and put it into his own backpack, "Whatever's in there, the two of us won't be able to carry all of that out."

Said man went off immediately and the siblings tried opening the chest. It took its time, but when the two of them managed that, they were surprised again. It was filled with silver, gold and platinum coins as well as gemstones and jewelry. But what had caught their attention was a strange object that was placed between the valuables. It was of a bright brown colour with five coloured glass plates attached to one side of it, five bigger ones, coloured in red, blue, green and purple, and a small one with a light grey tone. The object was shaped like the chest it was in, but it was much smaller. In addition there were runes written all over the side with the plates. The other sides were blank.

Chrom started getting it out of the chest, which was lighter than expected, as it was still bigger than him, as Lissa put the valuables into two bags. Even though their archaeological team wasn't after treasures, earning some money by selling them to museums or the government wasn't that bad either.

…

"Hey, Chrom!" the red-haired woman accompanied by Frederick yelled, "Now what's inside this chest?"

"Check it yourself, Sully!" Chrom answered while tossing one of the bags to her. She whistled as she saw the treasures inside.

"Not bad…" she said as she gave it back to him, "And, what's that?" The redhead pointed at the strange object, which now stood on the roots.

Lissa happily answered, "We don't know, but it wouldn't be here if it wasn't important!" Sully nodded before giving them a confident grin.

"Alright! Let's get this stuff outta here! You're takin' the bags, I'll take than… thing," she announced determined.

…

"What was that?" Chrom asked as they were back in the treasure chamber, "I thing I heard something…" Suddenly, the trap door slowly closed itself, and, when it finished, the ground started trembling vigorously.

"Is this damn ruin collapsing?!" the redhead cursed as they ran for their lives as fast as they could. The four of them needed to get to the surface as fast as possible.

…

The group managed to escape just in time. The whole building collapsed shortly after they managed to get outside.

"If that wasn't close…" Chrom murmured relieved. The others agreed and Lissa seemed to realize something.

"Isn't it like this in the movies? Take the treasure and it activates a trap!" she said happily. The others laughed and the group left, heading for their current camp.

* * *

"What's this…" a strange figure said, "The ruins were robbed?" The person sighed. "I need to find at least the others."

And with that said, the figure disappeared into the shadows.

* * *

**So, this was the first chapter. I would like to hear your opinion on it. See you next chapter!**


	3. The mysterious girl

**Well, it's been some time since I last updated this one, hasn't it? And seriously, I have to get the chapters a little longer...**

**Anyway, here we go with chapter 2! Entrance the mysterious girl mentioned in the summary! Well, you could guess that from the title, though.  
****And I think I watched too much Erementar Gerard when I came up with this idea... Anyway, do you get what her name is implying?**

**By the way... I started a new run. Stuck at chapter 2.  
****Well, I guess the name "Lunatic+" isn't coming from nowhere.**

* * *

_**The mysterious girl**_

"Captain, you're ba–" When Chrom, Lissa, Frederick and Sully entered their camp, they were greeted by a girl with greyish brown hair. But as she ran towards them, she tripped over nothing.

"Sumia, are you alright?" The girl just nodded. She brushed the dust off as she stood up.

"Yes… Yes, I'm fine." She eyed the object they found in the ruins and Sully carried at the moment. "What's that?"

They shrugged. "We don't really know." The blonde looked at her apologetically. "We wanted to ask Miriel if she had any idea on how to open it…"

"She's busy with her studies right now and said that nobody should disturb her… We could leave it with the other artifacts, though."

"Okay, let's take this stuff to the convoy. After that, you guys can do what you want."

* * *

"Miriel?" The door creaked open and a rust red head appeared. The woman sitting at her desk looked up at the boy, adjusting her glasses and her red hair.

"Yes, Ricken?"

"Chrom and the others returned and they found some weird artifact they want you to look at."

"I see… I'll look at it in a few minutes."

* * *

"So this is the artifact?" Miriel eyed the object curiously, while Ricken placed her books on a table.

"Yes, we found it inside some ruins of the old civilization." Lissa sat on another table with another blonde next to her. The girl wore pale pink pants, a rose blouse and brown boots. She wore her hair in blonde ringlets tied up with white bows. Alongside the small group was Sully, who stood at the door, her lance at her side.

"Curious… As far as I know, these different coloured stones are some kind of lock…" The woman brushed the tips of her fingers against the grey one. Suddenly, all of the stones glowed, and then, one after one stopped. As none of them shone, the one she had touched moved out of the object a little. Quickly, the woman touched the four stones in the same order they stopped glowing and then pushed in the grey stone again.

"…And what now…?" Lissa jumped off the table and made her way towards Miriel.

"Wait, what's that?" The women spun to look at Ricken. "There is some weird sound coming from the thing…" They all looked at the artifact again.

Suddenly, the front of the object slowly swung open, revealing the inside filled with white velvet cloth.

The group of five stared at the object leaning against the wall, which now looked like a casket, the body enveloped in soft cloth.  
Carefully walking closer, Miriel took out her notebook and pen. Inspecting the object, she began murmuring to herself.

"Curious. Whilst the shell is very thin and light, it remains stable; by now unbreakable. The object was locked using technology on a higher standard than ours; the only key were the five stones at its front." Touching the fabric, she continued, "Although the cloth inside looks like velvet or something similar, it is of a rough structure, like linen and–" The redhead stopped abruptly. "There is something enveloped in it?"

"Really?! Lemme see!" The younger blond excitedly rushed towards the object, her pigtails swaying back and forth as she ran, and pressed her hand into the strange cloth. "AHHH!" Screaming, the girl stumbled backwards, falling on her rear. "T-t-t-t-tha-!", she stuttered.  
"That felt like an arm! An actual HUMAN ARM!"

Not only Lissa had a terrified look on her face and Sully quickly grabbed the white fabric, tearing it off. "What the hell?!"

What was lying beneath it shocked everyone. "M-Miriel? What's this supposed to mean?"  
There was, embedded in the weird cloth and loosely tied to the backside, a girl. Looking like asleep, her dark purple dress contrasted her snow white hair. Her skin was pale, but she looked rather alive or like a doll.

"Is this… a life-sized doll? Why would it be inside this?" Maribelle voiced the question which was in everyone's head.

"Curious. Why would they lock a puppet away? Yet, the object looks too vivid for a corpse, even if they conserved it. Which reveals another question: Why would they have such a thing at a temple?" Miriel narrowed her eyes, thinking of an answer.

"Why don't we move her into your laboratory? You could continue the examinations there and have all your notebooks around…" She nodded, obviously being fond of Ricken's idea.

"A good idea. Is there anyone near who could take it up?"

"Heh." Sully grinned. "I'm more than able to do this, don't ya worry."

* * *

"Ngh…" Opening her eyes, the girl found herself in dimly lit room which contained a desk on which were some kind of notes, and a small library. "Where am I?"  
Making her way over to the door, she pulled the hood of her dress over her head, hiding her hair underneath. Her naked feet moving over the floor without making any sound, she snuck out of the room. Moving through the hallways, careful not to get spotted, she hid behind a plant upon hearing someone stomping towards her. The redhead marched through a door, furious.

"WHO WAS IN MY LABORTORY?!" Her angry voice echoed through both the hall and the room behind, a mess room, silencing everyone. Feeling that she was the reason of her anger, the girl flinched.

"What happened, Miriel?", a high voice asked. The girl quietly moved more behind the plant and the bookshelf next to it.

"Someone took it away!" Kneeling down, she crawled into the small space behind the bookshelf in order not to be spotted.

"What? Who?" She crouched in the back corner of the small space.

"This is what I wanted to know." The girl gulped. This woman seemed quite scary as she was now.

"This reminds me…" Another voice joined in. "Some of our money and provisions disappeared. And here I thought that someone went buying supplies and Stahl was too hungry."

"So ya wanna say there's a thief somewhere around? If that's true, we gotta teach him a lesson!" A fourth voice said. Even though all of them where female, the girl had a feeling that messing with all of them could end bad for her. Very bad.

"If we all are going to look for the culprit, I suggest starting from my laboratory and spreading into all possible directions in order to work more efficient." The redhead spoke up again before she could hear their footsteps moving away from her.

Sighing, she quickly crawled out of her hideout, knowing that she'll get found if she stays too long. "Seriously, what's with these guys…?" She then continued sneaking through the hallway, away from the mess room and those people after her.  
Yet, after some time, she heard footsteps following her again. Upon not finding any better hideout, she moved behind one of the wall curtains, only to fall into a secret hallway lying behind.  
"Ouch… What is this…?" Rubbing her naked arms, she got off the ground and walked further into the darkness of the hidden hallway, until suddenly an arm wrapped around her body, making her incapable of moving, as well as a gloved hand covering her mouth.

As she instantly started trying to escape from the man's grasp, his voice whispered into her ear. "Quit your squirming, Bubbles. I'm not goin' to harm you. Just keep quiet." Not wanting to obey, she stomped on his foot, making him back away. As fast as she could, she ran towards the actual hallway, just to bump into someone as she leaped through the curtain, falling on her rear.

"Are you alright?" She looked up to see a young man kneeling down by her side holding out his hand. Just then, likely because his hideout was spotted, the other man dashed out of behind the wall curtain, running down the hallway, not leaving a trace after he was around the corner. "What was that just now…?" Redirecting his attention to the girl, he smiled a little. "You should get up now. I don't think that the floor is the most comfortable thing around." Nodding, she grabbed his hand and stood up. "Who are you? I can't remember having seen you before."

Standing upright, she turned her head to face him.  
"I am Reflet, the highpriest."

* * *

**Gee, this cliffhanger...**

**Anyway, get what her name's implying?**

**Character(s), whose names haven't been mentioned yet: 4**


	4. The ancient highpriest

**Welp, another update.  
...Not that there was any other update to begin with...**

**So let's make this short as I'm tired. Even though I hardly did anything. Except failing at rebuilding Olaf from Frozen.  
****Oh yeah, and characters, strange stuff and some preludes. Yaay...**

* * *

_**The ancient highpriest**_

"I am Reflet, the highpriest."´

The man was silent for a moment before asking, "…Highpriest? What highpriest?" Giving him a confused look, she wanted to speak up again, but was interrupted.

"What the hell?!" The two spun around to see a woman with short red hair running towards them.

"Do you know her, Sully?" The woman, Sully, turned to face the man, giving him a stern look.

"Stahl, we found the girl in that thing we brought along. Which was locked up in damn those ruins for more than ONE THOUSAND YEARS!" The man's eyes widened in shock, mirroring the girl's expression.

"Locked up? Ruins? More than thousand years?" Reflet looked back and forth between the two, hoping that this was just some joke. "What's this all about?"

"Curious." Suddenly appearing out of nowhere, the other red haired woman gently grabbed and lifted her chin to look the highpriest in the eyes. "So you have no clue on how you ended up in there?" She shook her head, fear rising inside her. "Very curious."

"H-how… How did I get here?" Fear rang through her voice as she spoke. The three looked back and forth between each other.

"You should eat something first." She looked towards Stahl, who spoke who again, "Let's talk about this afterwards, okay?"  
Nodding, she went along as the man led her to the now completely empty mess hall.

* * *

Sitting on a lone chair and sipping some soup, Reflet was confronted by someone's voice.  
"Hi there!" Her brown eyes flickered up to meet the turquoise ones of the younger blonde medic, who just spoke to her. Raising her face, the highpriest also noticed another blonde medic beside the first one, her pale red eyes mustering her.

"Um, hello?" Sitting down beside her, the younger one smiled.

"What are you doing here all alone?" Taken aback by the girl's friendly behavior, the priest muttered an incoherent 'huh?'. "Is everything alright?"

"Uh… yes…?" Scoffing, the other blonde sat down too.

"We are just trying to be nice, so what is the problem?" Although startled at first, the highpriest quickly remembered what she had been taught about how to interact with others. Even though she never thought she'd need it as she wasn't the queen, only her cousin, she now was glad she had these lessons.

Taking in a deep breath, she stood up and bowed. "Please excuse me if I have been insolent or ungrateful, 'twould have never been intended milady."

Surprised by Reflet's sudden mood swing, the young woman cleared her throat, speaking up again. "No, it's fine. I just wondered why a lady of your status would act so shy. Although, in retrospect, it might have been a bit cold of me."

"Well, anyway…" The other blonde spoke up again, drawing their attention. "I'm Lissa and my friend's Maribelle. Nice to meet you!"

Smiling slightly, the highpriest looked at her. "I… see. It's nice to meet you, too." She looked back and forth between the two medics. "And, uh… What… now…? Do you know… what I should do now?" The blondes looked at each other, before Lissa retorted.

"Well… I'd say you should get some sleep first. My brother wants to talk to you tomorrow." The girl nodded before the threesome left, the two blondes leading the white haired girl to the quartiers.

"But it would be better if you some shoes. And maybe some warm clothes."

…_**the next morning…**_

"So… what do you think?"  
Miriel looked up from her notes, adjusting her glasses whilst eyeing the bluenette which had just spoken to her.

"I assume 'tis this highpriest that caught your curiosity. Whilst I have no evidence that her statement is true, some of the old scripts discovered in earlier explorations seem to support her. By now, I'd say we can neither assume that she really is a highpriest nor that she is not." Chrom nodded, visibly lost in thoughts.

"But… she has to be somehow important or related to the ruins. Perhaps both. How should she have gotten into this… thing if she wasn't?" The archeologist nodded, the statement seemed legit and logical.

"I will make further researches and read through my all notes again. In case there is something interesting, I shall send someone to inform you."

* * *

"So, what should we get you…?"  
Standing inside a merchant's stock, Reflet watched Lissa and Maribelle and two other females they took along dig through a pile of clothes while eying the wooden chamber. One of the women had elbow-long, greyish-brown hair and wore a pink dress alongside silver tights and black shorts accompanied by knee-long, brown boots. Sumia, as the highpriest remembered her name. The other one had waist-long, red hair and wore a white shirt and red shorts as well as black stockings and the same boots as Sumia. Cordelia, she remarked, Sumia's best friend.  
Also, she had found out that Lissa and Maribelle are best friends too. A rather odd duo in her opinion, but she didn't mind.

"Is there a problem?" Reflet spun to look at the person that just spoke to her, which turned out to be the red haired merchant owning this place.

"N-no, I just don't really know what to take and…" She gazed at the others. "They're so excited… It feels a little… weird." Humming, the merchant nodded. Then suddenly, a confused look painted itself on her face.

"Could it be possible that we already met? I never forget a face, and I remember yours. But I can't remember when." The highpriest gaped at her before shaking her head.

"N-no, that's… not exactly possible," she stuttered whilst the red-head pushed her face towards Reflet's. Narrowing her eyes, the merchant scanned her face.

"Anna never forgets. And until I can remember, you won't get rid of me that easily." Swiveling her head around, Anna motioned towards the other four. "I know them. They are part of the archeological team, which happens to be open for new members. Makes it easier for me to travel around and to make money." Reflet sighed. It was true though, she also had joined the team as she had nowhere to go.

"Anyway, I'd have some stuff that would suit you well… And that stuff's on sale! How about it?"

…_**later that day…**_

Mud splashing against her new, dark brown boots, the young woman strolled through the forest, deeply inhaling the fresh air.  
Walking the small path, enjoying the peace of the forest, a snap and low growling broke the silence. "What…?" Following the sound, Reflet quickly found its origin:  
A tanned woman lying in the mud wounded. As she carefully walked closer, inspecting the brown haired figure, panic and fear painted itself on her face.  
"Panne?!"

* * *

…

* * *

"What?! How did he escape?!"  
The scraggy man looked furious upon hearing the news. Still, the white haired woman in front of him giggled mischievously.

"Don't worry, sir. I've already met some arrangements for catching him again." She bowed lightly. "And I wanted to ask for your permission to _treat_ the ones responsible… accordingly." The man sighed.

"Do whatever you want as long as we get him back. Does he really believe he could fool me?" The man broke into laughter, whilst the woman stretched again.

"Nothing could ever fool you, sir."

* * *

**So... stuff happened.**

**And the usual ending stuff like review, request, criticism and suggestions.**

**...Gotta go sleep...**


End file.
